September 28, 2010

Atheists know more about religion; That's why we're atheists

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life just released a new study on U.S. Religious Knowledge. One of the key findings is the fact that atheists/agnostics scored highest among various faith (or non-faith) groups when it came to basic religious knowledge.

Why is that? There is no definitive answer, but I can offer a few theories. Many atheists left religion in the first place because we learned too much about our faith. Atheists pay attention when we hear religious groups make ridiculous statements. Atheists tends to be better educated than the rest of the population.

Many atheists left religion in the first place because we learned too much about our faith.

They say a little knowledge can hurt you, but in our case, a lot of knowledge led us to believe that what we were being taught in our churches, synagogues, and mosques were a collection of lies -- Well-meaning lies in most cases, but certainly not reflective of reality.

As we speak to other atheists and read their books, we find that their stories are similar to ours. Lies are lies, no matter how they're wrapped, and their stories stick with us. We learn a lot about other religions partly because we notice that delusion isn't limited to the faith we left. It's all around it, wherever a god is present.

When Catholics get offended because someone desecrated a communion wafer, we realize that it's because they really believe the wafer is the body of Christ. It's not symbolic! They really believe they're digesting Jesus. It's silly. And we notice.

When the children of Christian Scientists get killed because their parents refused to take them to a doctor for an otherwise-treatable infection, we are appalled. And we learn about their religious beliefs in that way.

Time after time, we are bombarded with religious beliefs. We take note of them. We point out how foolish it all sounds, but so many religious Americans give those beliefs a pass because "it's somebody's faith and we ought to respect it." Maybe they let it slide, but those beliefs stick with us.

Atheists tends to be better educated than the rest of the population.

Study after study have shown that there is a correlation betwen a person's level of education and that person's level of religiosity. The more education we get, the less religious we are. It's no surprise that college-educated scientists have a problem with, say, the evangelical Christian stance on evolution. It's no surprise that educated people have a problem with how women are treated in the Catholic Church and in certain Muslim nations.

Educated people also tend to be more skeptical and critical. We don't take what religious leaders say at face value. We want to study their claims for ourselves and, too often, we've come to find that those leaders are on the wrong side of the truth. The same applies to their holy books. It should be noted that the Pew Forum study showed that atheists/agnostics fared better than "believers who had a similar level of education." So while education helps, it isn't the only factor at play.

As I said at the beginning, these are only my theories as to why we atheists scored higher in this study than people from other faiths. As this study makes the rounds, I'm really curious to hear why church-goers feel they scored lower than we did. And I'd love to know if (and how) they plan to fix that.

Posted at 03:15:23 PM

Comments

Well written Hemant! As soon as a believer is ready to step outside their bubble of influence and look at their own religion with the same critical eye that they use for others, then they see why we reject their religion in the same way they reject others. But most believers are not willing to do this - somehow this is 'blasphemous'. But it should raise a red flag if their god/church does not want them to be a critical thinker, but preferably a blind sheep.

It’s tempting to look at the Pew survey outcomes and prescribe a program of lectures and rote memorization for the American public. Shouldn’t adults at least be able to know as much about faith as they know about the National Football League or American Idol?

Wringing our hands about ignorance of basic religious facts, however, misses the point. Adults seek out new knowledge when it is important to them and connected to what they do everyday. If we want to reverse the trend of religious illiteracy, we must take religious knowledge off the shelf, dust it off, and make it pertain to people’s lives.

It’s notable that people surveyed by Pew who talk regularly about religion with friends and family answered more questions correctly than people who don’t. Adults learn best in settings where they can ask questions and debate ideas. That’s true in churches, synagogues and mosques, and it’s also true over the water cooler at work. But we know that religion can be divisive and contentious, and so often when we have the chance, we don’t discuss it.

To get smart about religion, our religious and civic communities need to convene people from different religious backgrounds to learn together and learn from each other. It’s one thing to learn that the Dalai Lama is Buddhist, as more than half of Americans need to do; it’s another thing entirely to understand what that means in the lives of our neighbors who are Tibetan refugees, Chinese immigrants, or American Buddhist converts.

This research is a call for us to expand religious education beyond the walls of our own congregations. True religious literacy comes when we learn not only the facts of our own and other faiths, but also what those facts mean in our lives and why they matter to our communities.

I would add one additional theory for why we tend to be educated about religion.

Religious people love to confront us about our beliefs, and they love to cite their beliefs in an attempt to convert us. To counter their attempts to convert me, I have read the Bible, Koran, and Torah, so that I can point out flaws with their belief system when they try to talk it up to me. I don't go about life seeking conflict, or attempting to "disprove" their beliefs, but if they are going to try to use them to convert me, I will pull out all of the conflicting statements and rediculous aspects of their faith.

For some reason, being atheist isn't socially allowed in America. My first amendment right apparently isn't as black and white as theirs, although it is getting better. So I study their systems, I memorize the histories, and I take notes on all of the absurd pieces. I only bring them out when confronted, but when it happens, the faithful is usually dumbstruck and decides to abandon their crusade.

Being curious about the test and being atheist myself, I popped in to take the quiz.
I missed one question. This is rather scary since I don't immerse myself in religion as most Americans profess to do. Perhaps as atheists we prefer to fix things rather than wait around to be magically lifted into a heaven of some sort. I wonder if most of them even know where their silly 6000 year old earth idea comes from? And do Mormons(who did better than average) know that there is not one shred of evidence for their 'history'? It does explain a lot of the fear from one religion to another. People tend to fear what they don't understand.

Thank you, Mr. Mehta. Not just you, but all those who have posted comments. It really gives me hope for the future when I see religious discussions offering different perspectives happen in a logical, calm, and rational way. Too many people get personally offended when one offers an opinion that differs from their own religious conceits. Thank you all for discussing this like civilized adults!

Did you really mean to write 'other' (in "we atheists scored higher in this study than people from other faiths."). I've always thought that the whole point of atheism was that it WASN'T a faith.
Otherwise nice post.

I think BrianE has nailed one of the major reasons for this ignorance among the faithful. Many are taught that anything outside their church's particular interpretation of the truth is evil or from the devil, so they stay carefully inside the very narrow boundaries set for them.

I think another major reason is comfort with the status quo and fear of change. If your beliefs are an important part of your identity and you find out they're wrong, that will require you to make some significant changes in your life. It's much easier to stay away from everything that doesn't already fit with your ideas--then you'll never have to change or grow.

When a Christian Science child dies, it's a tragedy and it doesn't happen often. There is no church rule that says a parent or child can't seek medical help. It's individual choice. Does society judge the medical system by their failures or successes? Most Christian Science parents heal their children quickly and responsibly. Studies have shown that prayer heals. And Christian Science families, through many generations, however humbly, have and are proving the power of prayer for themselves and their children. Sincerely -

Some are calling this study a biased attack from the liberal media made to make christians look stupid. Um ... YOU guys answered the questions incorrectly, the only bias is against the ignorant. I am a strong atheist, took the 15-question version and got 14 right. There is no reason I should be getting questions right about catholic doctrine that barely half of catholics themselves know. no reason whatsoever.

As someone who grew up in an evangelical church (though I do not practice any religion now) I can tell you that the majority of Christians have never even read through the entire Bible. They claim to believe everything it says as undisputed truth, and yet have no idea what those "truths" really are. Most of what they know about God, Jesus, or their own religion comes from sermons preached by a biased minister on Sunday morning.

I'm not an atheist, I believe in God. I don't believe in man's rules and regulations, and the way man twists a simple message to justify oppression and hatred of other human beings. I think there are many people like me. I know a lot about religion. You can have it.

Satan has deceived the whole world until the heel of time when a woman shall bruise him Gen 3:15 by exposing his lies and delivering the true word of God Rev 12 to the world to prepare a people for the Lord's return. Check out the exposing of Satan's lies at http://thegoodtale.blogspot.com/2010/04/no-hell-fire.html

I was raised to believe completely in a god, a heaven, and a hell - my instructors were my parents, ministers and Sunday School teachers. Finally, I read the Bible from cover to cover, as my believing parents never had, just to know more about the source of my beliefs. The first time through, I could actually feel my "convictions" dropping away as I poured over the inaccuracies, the inconsistencies, the lack of knowledge about the physical world. John 3:16 begins, "For God so loved the world...," but no loving god could have committed the atrocities described in that book. No omniscient god could inspire men to write that the sun stood still, making the day longer, because he would know that's not how it works.

I've since read the Bible through twice more. I was searching for god, but all I found were men who know little, if any, more about how life works than I do, men who did their best - in their time - to explain why things are the way they are, men whose fear of the finality of death, caused them to invent a heaven where they believed their lives would continue, men who hoped they could help bring order to their societies by concocting commandments and attributing them to an invisible god. I found a bible written by Man, for Man, and a god created by Man, in His own image.